|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Publishing a shashi, or company history, is common practice for many Japanese companies. Shashi provide rich information on the origin and experiences of the company and collectively show the trajectory of Japan's modern economic development. Unfortunately, however, shashi are not easily accessible at present, for they are mostly in-house publications with limited circulation.
This ambitious project envisions the creation of a comprehensive database of shashi to facilitate the use of the information they contain. The database will be available online when completed. Ms. Katsuko Murahashi, a shashi expert, is the leader of this project. |
|
| |
|
|
|
Shashi is a general Japanese term for company history, but it usually refers to published volumes of company history.
The definition of shashi according to Ms. Murahashi a shashi expert, is a publication in which a company provides an account of its own history based on its own archives and takes responsibility for it. According to Murahashi, from the end of the 19th century until 2002 more than 13,000 shashi were published and today more than 100 are published every year.
Terms such as kaishashi or nenshi are often used interchangeably with shashi. Shashi and kaishashi, however, are exclusively used for company history while the term nenshi is a broader concept since it not only refers to published histories of business enterprises, but also those of other organizations such as schools, municipalities, religious bodies, etc. |
| back to top |
|
Shashi can be characterized as grey literature.
Since shashi are in-house publications, the target readers are usually limited to employees and people who are associated with the company. Editorial responsibility often rests with a company's editorial board and, in most cases, the publisher is almost always the company itself.
The bibliographic information provided in shashi is often inconsistent and the distribution of shashi is very limited and dependent on private channels. One example of the inconsistent bibliographic information in shashi is that the titles printed on the title page, the colophon, and the cover are not always identical. This is simply because shashi are edited by non-specialized editors and published by non-professional publishers. |
| back to top |
|
Links to shashi sites
Useful works on shashi.
Yuko Matsuzaki, "The Shibusawa Shashi Project and Sharing Information on Business Archives in Japan," Business Archives, Principles and Practice, No. 91, May 2006. pp. 28-43.
Katsuko Murahashi, Shashi no kenkyu (A Study of Published Company Histories). Tokyo: Diamond, Inc., 2002.
Zoho kaiteiban kaishashi sogo mokuroku (A Supplemented and Revised Union Catalogue of Histories of Companies and Economic Organizations). Tokyo: Japan Business History Institute, 1996.
Nihon kaishashi soran (A Comprehensive Bibliography on Japanese Company Histories). Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Inc., 1995. 3 Vols.
 |
| back to top |
|
|
